Anime Boston was held at the dawn of spring. Boston was slowly, but surely wrapping up the winter season. The Scarlet Rhapsody crew made plans to commute to the Hynes Convention Center via the Green Line as the Friday morning commute shared the trains with otakus headed for Anime Boston. Prior to the con, Anime Boston posters were plastered all over the Green and Red lines - you could tell that the con was on the horizon. Even as when we were leaving for our Katsucon flight, A-chan and B-kun's familiar faces greeted us on the Red Line. Anime Boston is New England's biggest anime event - cosplayers pull all stops to bring their best and as the years go by, programming gets even better than before.

Annual Theme: Magic and Mischief by Scarlet
What makes Anime Boston unique is that they go all out with their annual theme. This year, it was "Magic and Mischief." The halls resembled a magical academy - kinda like Hogwarts, but for magical girls. The story behind the magic academy is that they trained magical girls. A-chan and B-kun, the mascots, were students of said academy. There were plenty of injokes incorporated with the theme. For example, there was a long list of "academy rules" wherein magical transformations could not exceed more than 30 seconds. Anime Boston is the one con that really goes all out on their theme. It's very much incorporated into the events - if you attended all the cosplay events (chess, dating game, masquerade, etc), you could even follow the con's ongoing story.

Moon Prism Poptarts R(eturns) by Scarlet
This was our second year hosting Moon Prism Poptarts at Anime Boston. The popular panel filled one room last year. We were one of the first panels to kick off the con. We had a medium sized audience in the morning. This is our panel that educates people on how anime was brought to the USA in the 1990s with a focus on Sailor Moon and the early days of Moonie fandom. What we did different was show clips from a Nightline special and the live action North American Sailor Moon that was used in the "Moon-a-Thon Toon-a-Thon" during the early broadcast. Also, people did not know that John Stocker (Raye's Grandpa) was a guest at the con. We kindly encouraged people to support the Sailor Moon North American voice actors at the con.

Cosplay is Not Consent by Scarlet
Anime Boston has a strict "cosplay =/= consent" policy. Last year, there were signs reminding attendees how to report harrassment. There was a similiar panel last year hosted by an e-famous cosplayer. However, I did prefer the Anime Boston cosplay staff discussing how to report harassment at the con. The panel focused on different levels of harrassment in the con setting and how people react to it differently. They talked about the importance of reporting to con-ops and taking down names. There was an interesting debate during the panel between someone from the press and the panelists about when it is appropriate to confront and not to confront. I do appreciate Anime Boston having a panel like this at cons; having staff take care of the sensitive topic gave it credibility and it shows that the staff cares about the safety of all attendees.

Art Show by Scarlet
As people were filtering into the Hynes Convention Center, people were flocking into Artist Alley just before the dealers hall opened. The art show was hidden in artist alley off to the side. In this hidden corner, there were pieces of art up for auction. One of my favorite dealers, Hikaru wo Sagasu, had a few floral orgami hair pieces up for auction. What was also interesting about this Art Show is that it also had non-anime entries from the DC and Marvel Universe. Because of this year's theme, there were plenty of Sailor Moon related art pieces up for auction. One memorable set was from Angry Cat - the adventures of what looks like to be the pick of Grumpy Cat and Pusheen's litter.

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